Khalilzad meets Bajwa, Qureshi over Afghan peace

ISLAMABAD: The US envoy tasked with forging a peace deal with the Taliban met with officials in Pakistan on Friday, after telling leaders and various groups in Afghanistan they would be included in future talks.

Zalmay Khalilzad was in Islamabad after spending five days in Afghanistan amid strains between Washington and President Ashraf Ghani’s administration, which has complained bitterly of being sidelined in peace talks.

He met Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa on Friday. In his meeting with Qureshi, Khalilzad briefed him on the outcome of Doha talks and his recent engagements in the region. He also shared updates on his meetings in Afghanistan and the dynamics of the intra-Afghan dialogue.

Qureshi expressed Pakistan’s commitment to the Afghan peace process and said it would directly benefit Pakistan’s vision of economic and human development. Pakistan wished well for the peace and stability in Afghanistan, he told the US envoy. Qureshi also said intra-Afghan dialogue is a vital component of Afghanistan’s reconciliation process.

Earlier, Khalilzad held delegation-level talks with Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua. Janjua briefed him about telephonic conversation between Qureshi and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and informed him about their mutual interest in further progress on Afghanistan peace efforts and their mutual desire to remain engaged to pursue the reconciliation process. After meeting Qureshi, Khalilzad called on the Army chief at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi. During the meeting, the overall regional security situation with particular reference to the ongoing Afghan reconciliation process was discussed, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a press release. The visiting dignitary appreciated Pakistan’s efforts towards peace process, it added. “Intra-Afghan dialogue should be comprehensive and inclusive with representatives from the #Afghan government, women, young people, and civil society,” Khalilzad said on Twitter at the start of his five-day visit. The Taliban has until now refused to meet with the Kabul government, accusing it of being a puppet regime. The diplomatic spat between Washington and Kabul came to a head last month when Afghanistan’s national security advisor Hamdullah Mohib accused Khalilzad of a lack of “transparency”, even suggesting the Afghan-born envoy wanted to be “viceroy” of his native country.

Washington reacted furiously, with US officials reportedly refusing to attend meetings in which Mohib was present. The outspoken adviser visited eastern provinces when Khalilzad was in Kabul.

Among those Khalilzad met with was a group of seven women from the Afghan Women Network. Under the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Sharia law, women were stripped of all basic rights and were sometimes executed for alleged adultery.

“Women should not be forgotten in the talks, and our rights should not be trampled,” Robina Hamdard, an advocacy manager at the network, told AFP. “We want everything — women’s rights to education and social activities — to be guaranteed during the talks... We want a lasting peace, not a shaky peace.” A new round of talks between the Taliban and Afghan officials is expected later this month in Doha, with further US-Taliban talks possible after that. “We are hopeful that intra-Afghan talks will start as soon as possible and that we can agree to de-escalate the war,” Khalilzad said in the radio interview. Ghani, who was elected in a fraud-tainted poll in 2014, is seeking a second term